Category: North York Moors
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Autumnity
We’re well and truly into autumn, a morning chill, a low sun and a palette of russett and golds. Bracken is a formidable plant. It’s been around since the dinosaurs, with fossil records going back over the last 55 million years. But its success represents a real threat to biodiversity, shading out other plants, producing…
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Nothing to see here …
Just a scene of everyday countryfolk mingling prior to exercising their natural right to kill the red grouse, Lagopus lagopus scotica. The keepers, beaters and general folk of a lower class were mustering out of shot. Grouse shooting has been declared an “organised outdoor sport” or “licensed outdoor physical activity” and as such is exempted…
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Byland Abbey
In its heyday, Byland Abbey ranked alongside Rievaulx and Fountains as one of the three great monasteries of the north. But the Cistercian order from Savigny took 43 years to found a permanent site for their monastery. It began across the Pennines when, in 1134, a community of monks from Furness Abbey set out to…
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New signs
New signs have appeared on Roseberry. A bit late, summer being almost over. Shame it’s come to this. How long before it is trashed? I wonder what percentage of the population has actually heard of the Countryside Code. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Percy Rigg Hut Circles
It’s been at least three years since I posted a photo of the Iron Age hut circles at Percy Rigg. This is a group of five circular huts, one of which can be seen in the photo, although not all would have been in use at the same time. The occupants were farmers, probably living…
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Dry hedging in Newton Wood
A tiring day in Newton Wood on the main route up Roseberry making some dry hedges from cut sycamore saplings. Dry hedges are basically a wall of branches weaved between stakes. They provide good habitat for all small mammals and insects but the primary aim for these hedges is to encourage visitors not to wander…
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Westerdale and Crown End
Westerdale, as the name suggests is the westernmost dale of the valley of the River Esk, although why Westerdale and not just Eskdale is lost to time. It’s a dale which has escaped the 19th-century mineral extraction of other valleys. There was some jet mining but this was mostly small scale and has not left…
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Roseberry from Ryston Bank
September, the meteorologists say we are now into autumn, the ‘back-end‘ of the year when mornings are that bit chillier and trees show signs of taking on their russet hues. In Macbeth, Shakespeare referred to the season as ‘sear‘. The King laments he is in the autumn of his life, he is cursed and will…
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Far House
A long-abandoned farmstead on the west bank of the River Rye, in the manor of Arden. It was last occupied in the 1930s. Although, it is named as Far House on the oldest Ordnance Survey maps the farm has been identified as previously being called Paddock Wath, a name which Bill Cowley records was still…
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Shandy Hall and Laurence Sterne
In 2003, The Guardian published one of those 100 greatest lists that we’re all familiar with. This one was for “the 100 greatest novels of all time“. No. 1 was Don Quixote, followed by Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe. Surprising but not altogether unexpected. To me, what was surprising was that, in 7th place, was…